In spite of the rise of the My Space generation, some people aren’t interested in making new friends on the Internet because they have enough trouble keeping up with the friends and family they already have.

Those are the types of folks targeted by a new meeting website called Family Collective (familycollective.com).

It’s not only a way to share photos and thoughts online with friends and family, but Denver-based Havoc Interactive is touting the site as a “private online meeting place” where it says the goal is to “better connect with loved ones.”

Users can create a profile page with photos, online journals and messaging.

What makes it “private” is that users create groups by invitation only, and they can’t search for other users or connect to strangers’ profiles as with most social networking sites.

Mead resident hopes paying $10 pays off

Nate Webb of Mead wants everyone to see his photo online.

The 31-year-old product engineer spent $10 to post his picture, as well as his likes and dislikes and a link to his professional RM Engineering website, on themostfamouspeopleontheinternet.com.

British entrepreneur John Nice started the site this month to see what kind of Web surfer would be willing to pay up to $1 million to be listed.

After Webb signed up, Nice started advertising a $50 spot, to be followed by a $100 spot and ones for $1,000, $5,000, $10,000, $100,000 and $1 million.

So far, a British teenager and Webb are the only ones who have signed up.

But who knows, they and the people who follow them might become famous, infamous or remain anonymous.

“There’s no loss; it’s just the cost of a hamburger and fries,” Webb said. “People like weird stuff like that. I think it will go big.”

Muffin tops are movin’ at 7-Eleven

Muffin tops, the baked treat made famous during a 1997 “Seinfeld” episode, have moved from the television set and onto the bakery shelf. Dallas-based 7-Eleven Inc. this month rolled out muffin tops nationwide, offering the quirky treat at more than 200 locations in Colorado. The tops are available in two flavors, “triple berry” and “apple cinnamon crunch,” and sell for about $1 each.

“Why not give the customer the best part of the muffin?” asked Jim Jensen, a 7-Eleven worker who helped develop the muffin tops.

Fans of “Seinfeld” will probably remember the episode. The character Elaine starts eating just the tops of muffins. Enamored of the idea, she decides to start a business to sell them.

Two sides to story on music-file sharing

Nearly a year after the Supreme Court struck a landmark ruling against online music file-sharing services, the chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America says the unauthorized swapping of songs has been “contained.”

“The problem has not been eliminated,” says CEO Mitch Bainwol. “But we believe digital downloads have emerged into a growing, thriving business, and file-trading is flat.”

That’s an optimistic view from an industry that saw its numbers slide to near oblivion after the launch of the original Napster in 1999. CD sales fell as much as 30 percent, and the RIAA pressed Congress and the courts for relief against what it said was rampant piracy.

After the Supreme Court ruled that the services could be liable for piracy by their users, the RIAA sent cease-and-desist letters to several firms. Most – including BearShare, WinMX and Grokster – shut down, although a few of their software programs still exist.

Eric Garland, CEO of Internet measurement firm BigChampagne, says that more people than ever are using file-sharing networks.

“Nearly 10 million people are online, swapping media, at any given time,” he says. The May figure is up from 8.7 million people in 2005, he says.

The RIAA has sued just more than 18,000 individuals for sharing songs online, with 4,500 settling for about $4,000 per case.

About 1.5 billion songs are available for free swapping at any given time on file-sharing networks, Garland says.

FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

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